Engine mounts may be used to attach engines to vehicle frames or other suitable structural vehicle elements. However, the engine and/or vehicle may generate vibrations during operation. Therefore, hydraulic dampening engine mounts have been developed to attenuate engine vibrations during vehicle operation. Hydraulic engine mounts may provide several configurations, enabling the dampening provided by the mount to be adapted for different operating conditions. For instance, engines mounts may have a first configuration for idle operation dampening and a second configuration for motive engine operation dampening.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,036,804 discloses an adaptive hydraulic engine mount having a solenoid valve operable to axially adjust a valve sealing element to change the level of dampening provided by the hydraulic mount. However, the inventors have recognized several drawbacks with the hydraulic engine mount disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,031. For example, actuating the solenoid valve requires an axial force that must overcome the hydraulic pressure in the mount. As a result, the size of the solenoid valve and corresponding components may be increased to provide a required amount of actuation force to overcome the hydraulic pressure. Additionally, the cost of the hydraulic mount may be increased when the aforementioned components are increased in size.
The inventors herein have recognized the above issues and developed a switchable engine mount. The switchable engine mount includes an end plate including one or more openings in fluidic communication with a hydraulic source and a channel plate coupled to the end plate and including one or more hydraulic flow openings. The switchable engine mount further includes a decoupler including at least one decoupler plate at least partially enclosed by the channel plate and the end plate and a switching plate positioned adjacent to the decoupler and configured to axially actuate the decoupler in response to reception of an input force from an actuator, the input force non-parallel to the axially actuation.
In this way, an actuation force may be applied is a direction that does not oppose an axial hydraulic force in the mount, thereby decreasing an amount of actuation force needed to actuate the mount from a first to a second configuration or vice-versa. The technical results achieved via the switchable engine mount include decreasing the actuation force needed for actuation of the switchable engine mount when compared to mounts which utilize axial actuation forces. As a result, the size of various components in the engine mount may be decreased, thereby decreasing the cost of the engine mount and increasing packaging efficiency.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure. Additionally, the above issues have been recognized by the inventors herein, and are not admitted to be known.
FIGS. 2-8 are drawn approximately to scale, however other relative dimensions may be used if desired.